ancing up to where Johnny was
painting a somewhat wobbly B. "He ain't done it lately, bo."

"Lemme up there, Skyrider, and see what it is yo'all are paintin' on,"
Bud pleaded. "If it's po'try, maybe I can sing it."

Johnny relaxed into a grin, but he did not answer the jibe. He was
disgusted with Bland for having such bad taste as to drum up trade here
on the ranch, among the boys who had ridden hard and long, believing
him in dire need. He hoped the boys would not guess that Bland was in
earnest; a poor, cheap joke is sometimes better than tactless
sincerity. He was even ashamed now of the name he was painting on the
wings. That, too, seemed cheap and pointless. He felt nauseated with
Bland Halliday and his petty grafting.

A little more and he would have told Bland so and sent him about his
business. At that moment of revulsion against Bland he was almost in
the mood to give up the whole scheme and do as Mary V wished him to do:
settle down there at the ranch and work out his debt where he had made
it. Looking down into the grimy, friendly faces of those who had
braved desert wind and sun for him, the sallow, shifty-eyed face of
Bland Halliday seemed to epitomize the sordid avariciousness of the man
and made him wonder if any measure of success would atone for the
forced intimacy with the fellow. Mary V, had she known his mood then,
might have won her way with him and altered immeasurably the future.

But Mary V knew only that he was staying down there with that
unbearable Bland Halliday, fussing around his horrid old airplane
instead of coming to the house and telling her he was sorry. Besides,
there was her dad, who had gone to all that trouble and expense for
him, not so much as getting a word of thanks or appreciation from
Johnny. Instead of coming right away to see her dad, he was down there
fooling with the boys. What, for gracious sake, ailed Johnny lately?
He ought to have a good talking to, she decided. Perhaps her dad could
talk some sense into him--she was sure that she couldn't.

So she stopped her dad when he was on the point of going down where
Johnny was, and she told him what perfectly crazy ideas Johnny had, and
how he had refused to listen to a word she said, but instead had taken
up with Bland Halliday again. And wouldn't dad please talk to Johnny?

"He keeps harping on owing you for those horses he lost," she said
impatiently. "I've told him and told him that you don't care and